One Day of Darkness Down and 39 More To Go!

Busy week of activities before the peacefulness of Lent begins.

• Sunday there was an appreciation breakfast for Deacon Jim who served the parish for many years. School parents and parishioners pitched in at 6:00am to begin cracking eggs, frying bacon, sausage and all the behind the scenes jobs that take place before a delicious breakfast is served after the first two Masses.

• Monday we went to Kartchner Caverns on the way to Tucson to take Sr. Mariadele to the airport. No cameras were allowed in this horizontal, humid cavern. This is a  must to see if visiting Arizona. It is a newly discovered cave that was opened to the public around 1999. It was an excellent hour tour of straws, stalactites, stalagamites and much more of God's beauty.
• Tuesday was Mardi Gras at All Saints Catholic School-beads were passed out to students and parents as they arrived. A party was held from 2-3:00pm. Karioke was done by willing students from Kindergarten to 7th grade. While students picked out songs others were in line for make your own sundaes and they could even have seconds.

Even the teachers got into the Mardi Gras spirit-even the most reserved.

Ash Wednesday, the students were in their church clothes and finalizing what they were going to do for Lent. Each family has a Rice Bowl and each classroom has a bank to put money in to help pay off the school mortgage. These will be brought up in the offertory at each school Mass during Lent.

For personal penance some students told me the following: I am not eating at all on Fridays, no meat and no cereal, no texting, no chips and pop and so on.

Ashes were blest and distributed at all of the three Masses.

For a Penance for the whole parish Father Ariel announced that he will be keeping the brown curtain closed on the beautiful glass windows behind the altar that look out onto the mountains and wildlife. The darkness created by the brown curtain will be a true reminder it is Lent. What a joy it will be on Holy Saturday Night to see the curtains opened and to watch the sun go down and the sun rise on Easter Sunday morning.
The closed curtain will be a true penance for me who loves the outdoors, the mountains and seeing the deer, horses, dogs etc that appear through the beautiful glass windows. The windows open you to the beauty of God's love for nature.
 One day of darkness down and 39 more to go. I sure hope he opens the curtains on Sundays since Sundays aren't considered days of Lent or in the 40 day countdown!